Why stick with XP instead of Vista?

donnajunkie

so as i have just ordered a new pc with vista i shouldnt worry because it is my first pc so i dont have any old stuff to put on it. however i may want to buy games that are not recent like doom3 for example.

Wirenth

I never, ever use a new microsoft os product until it has been out on the market at least 18months. Let some other mug do the testing and bug reporting that microsoft have clearly not finished before putting the software out on the market.

I'm still on XP and it works fine for me.

tomsolomon

I was looking at a laptop on the Dell website actually.
It had the option to have XP or Vista. I would go with XP every time, well for the time being anyway.
I still remember when XP came out and all the instability, crashes, downtime and security vulnerabilities. Its still being updated regularly now..
I recon it will be another 12 months before I even consider using Vista, and then it will only be as a secondary OS.

Then again I might just scrap Windows altogether and install Ubuntu..........

isofa

Vista is due for a SP1 (service patch) in the next few months (possibly Jan next year), but this is likely to be a host of bug fixes, rather than any major new features.

No-one in the know would touch it before it's been through it's first service patch, essentially it's a v1.0 product, and I'm not beta testing a product for Microsoft with my work and important files.

It's pretty much bombed compared with what Microsoft hyped it up to be too. One main problem is the crazy amount of versions available, it's just confusing for end-users, and hasn't impressed IT professionals. It needs extensively modern hardware too, yet the majority of the features have been around in Mac OS X Tiger for ages, and the soon to be released Mac OS X Leopard will move the goalposts further, both which run on much older hardware than Vista.

XP Pro is proven technology on SP2, and until Vista is seriously ironed out, it won't be mass taken up. The only reason it's gaining a little ground at the moment, is that new PCs come with it as default.

If I was buying a new PC tomorrow, I'd either get XP Pro and stick with it for at least 6 months to a year, or perhaps let it come with Vista Ultimate, but then install XP Pro either on a separate partition for dual boot, or wipe off Vista, until I was happy that all my key apps worked ok. Then at a later stage I could move to it, patch it online without spending more buying it new.

chaucer

Mention of Dell offering XP or Vista - choose XP and you cannot choose to have an internal wireless PCI card.

I have BT homehub and want to go wireless.

What are the ways around this?

superscaper

isofa wrote: »

No-one in the know would touch it before it's been through it's first service patch, essentially it's a v1.0 product, and I'm not beta testing a product for Microsoft with my work and important files.

Don't think you'll find unanimous agreement with you on this board. Extensive public beta testing for Vista had been going on for what 18 months/2 years before release? There are many "techies" on this board that have been very happy with Vista and found nothing wrong. Bit of an argumentum ad populum anyway.

superscaper

chaucer wrote: »

Mention of Dell offering XP or Vista - choose XP and you cannot choose to have an internal wireless PCI card.

I have BT homehub and want to go wireless.

What are the ways around this?

Buy one separately yourself and put it in.

chaucer

superscaper wrote: »

Buy one separately yourself and put it in.

Aaaiiieee!!

Open a new bought PC and start messing inside!!

Don't know how.

Are there wireless USB connector type thingies that perform well.

Also want wireless keyboard / mouse.

superscaper

If you aren't confident in putting in a PCI card (it's not that big of a deal, honestly) then get a USB wireless adapter instead. If you want a wireless keyboard and mouse that's a separate issue and nothing top stop you getting any one you want. I personally prefer Logitech input devices.

wolfman

Wirenth wrote: »

I never, ever use a new microsoft os product until it has been out on the market at least 18months. Let some other mug do the testing and bug reporting that microsoft have clearly not finished before putting the software out on the market.

Have to agree with SS on the above.

Vista is very good, works fine especially for the home user. There are actually very few bugs. The problems relate to poor driver support (will improve over time) and supporting older software/hardware.

If neither of those are a problem for you, then there's no reason not to choose Vista. It's typically only businesses that wait until SP1.

It especially provides a much more secure environment for a home user compared to XP.